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Lawyers for the media will be given copies Monday of a nearly 500-page police document which could reveal links between Mayor Rob Ford and alleged drug dealer Alexander Lisi.

On Wednesday, media lawyers, counsel for Lisi and the Crown will argue before Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer about when those documents should be released to the public and how much of it should be uncensored.

Since Lisi was arrested on drug charges Oct. 1, the Star and other media outlets have been fighting in court for the information police used to get a search warrant for Lisi’s properties released.

The Star has argued any information about the mayor being under investigation or linked to a police investigation is in the public interest.

When lawyers get the document on Monday, they will be able to give their clients a “brief summary” of what it says – which cannot be published – in order to get instructions on how to argue about its release.

Crown attorney Tom Andreopoulos said Friday the document given to lawyers will also include “a number of colour photographs.”

Andreopoulos said he believes “innocent third parties” — only one or two people who were not named in court and have not been charged as part of the raid — discussed in the document are entitled to be notified of the media’s application and be allowed to make arguments about its release or publication.

Lawyers for the media argued those people would not have standing in the court and should not be notified. They also argued the portions of the document that don’t deal with innocent parties should be released immediately.

Ryder Gilliland, a lawyer representing the Star, told the judge that it is clearly in the public’s interest to know to what extent Ford — who celebrated three years as mayor Friday — is involved in the police investigation.

“We wouldn’t be here if it was just a drug raid in the city,” Gilliland said.

“Clearly there’s something different about this (document),” Jacobsen said.

The Star’s court application for the document’s release outlines several links between Lisi and Ford, calling it a “matter of great public interest.”

The Star earlier reported that internal police documents revealed a police probe dubbed Project Brazen 2 was launched when Lisi was believed to be “brokering” the trade of marijuana for a stolen cell phone. A source told the Star the phone, which went missing in March, belonged to Ford.

After Lisi’s recent arrest, Ford called him a friend and “good guy.” When Lisi was found guilty of uttering death threats, Ford wrote him a letter of support for his sentencing in June.

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